What I Think of When I Hear Light by Divyanshi Dash (18, India)

Light was the dandelion I caught today while talking to him, and he told me: dandelions are caught by people deep in love.
Deep in love reminds me of being in unrequited love. Unrequited love and rescued by love are two different feelings I always end up thinking about. 
We encounter unrequited love at least once in our lifetime
It is the one that makes our stomach feel butterflies and worms all at once and the one that makes us change ourselves. 

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Rescued by love is that love you fall in with a person who fulfills every wish you had, makes your knees tremble & allows you to grow. 
It is the one that shines on you and whispers ‘you are enough’ even when you think you’re not
Thinking about love makes me feel light. 
Light was also the breakfast I had today because 
Once, in the summer of two thousand twelve
I was so conscious of my expanding chest I had to carry a scarf 
I didn’t know that made me mature
I was told I was 'sexy'; I didn’t really know what the word meant
I didn’t know it meant that my body was sexually appealing when it was just 10 years old
I didn’t know I had the potential to make everyone stop and stare
And
Once, in the summer of two thousand thirteen
My body was so aware of my thighs enlarging every time I sat, I had to stop sitting around people
Suddenly, I had to stop wearing shorts
I had to stand for so long that my ankles hurt
I had to buy seven frocks for seven different days to make myself comfortable while sitting around people
Sitting was a problem for me when I was eleven
And 
Once, in the summer of two thousand eleven I was super tanned and blessed with acne and peppy pimples, so my birth giver made me wrap myself with the homemade turmeric-besan body cleanser, and told it would make my skin clean and light. 
Light is also something that keeps me up at night
The idea of illumination and the very fact that I can see even in the late hours 
And the memories of my past summers seeped into my brain last night when I was trying to stare at my wall in the absence of light:
'Absence of light' is just a statement that hides the absence of fair skin and a small body.